Locomotive Ted
Locomotive Ted is a The Greeny Channel original program that aired for 2 seasons of 65 episodes in 1997-1998 and 2000-2001. The main character is a ALCO MRS-1 diesel living on a New England branch line named Ted, along with his older sister Janet (a ALCO RSD-4), two other diesels, Tyler (a EMD GP35) and Brian (a GE B40-8), as well as Tilly, a 2-10-0 "Russian Decapod" steam locomotive. There is also Gorilla Jake, the engineer of Ted, who is a talking gorilla. Production The show was produced by Classroom 8 Productions, a production company set up by a American elementary school teacher and railway enthusiast named Mary Hartford (b. 1941, d. 2008). Mary went on vacation with her parents to the UK growing up and saw the classic British children's TV shows, Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog (made by Oliver Postgate's Smallfilms) on a small rental TV. The entire series was filmed by Mary and students from Bellingham High School in a makeshift soundstage located in a disused salt storage dome in Bellingham, Massachusetts. *The backgrounds were miniature sets (usually built on two 4 by 8 feet (1,200 mm × 2,400 mm) sheets of plywood). *Gorilla Jake was a actor in a (one the producers bought at the store) shot in front of a green screen. *The trains were black-painted models (with reflective spots on them) built by students B.K. Hebert, Ross Jones, and Shawn Jameson. **The reflective spots were for , a technique where reflective spots are on a model or person. **Also, the movement of the trains was recorded by playing out the scene with black-painted large scale models (also fitted with reflective spots) equipped with magnetic position sensors. The trains were fitted with switches to aid coupling and pulling, due to some minor fluctuations in the magnetic positioning data. ***The models and puppets were shot in front of green screens, with the buildings being large scale model railway buildings spraypainted green. **The generated images seen on screen of the "Fix-o-Matic" were models of the characters outlined with glow-in-the-dark green tape and filmed in black light. **A was used to do the characters' faces and lip synching. It was done by putting reflective spots around an actor's mouth and on their lips. Then, the mouth movements (and the trains) were animated used a form of . *All of the animation was produced in on a computer running (and later one running ). *Coloring was done using Cambridge Animation Systems Animo by Nikki and Vicky Cheung. Actors * Ted - Oliver Grainger ** Ted (facial movements) - Shawn Jameson ** Ted (animation assistant) - Nikki Cheung * Janet - Mylène Dinh-Robic ** Janet (facial movements) - Nikki Cheung ** Janet (animation assistant) - Michael Pucelli * Tyler - Garry Chalk ** Tyler (facial movements) - Vicky Cheung ** Tyler (animation assistant) - Samuel Stevens * Brian - Scott McNeil ** Brian (facial movements) - Zee Davies ** Brian (animation assistant) - Vikki Cheung * Tilly - Chantal Strand ** Tilly (facial movements) - Nikki Cheung ** Tilly (animation assistant) - Ross Jones Category:TV Shows Category:Greeny Jr. original programmes Category:Non-Greeny Phatom pages Category:Greenytoons Universe Wikia